Ruggles of Red Gap **** (1935, Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts, Roland Young) – Classic Movie Review 8243

Director Leo McCarey’s 1935 Ruggles of Red Gap is a bona fide classic Thirties comedy showcasing Charles Laughton’s definitive comic turn as the quintessential English butler/ valet Marmarduke Ruggles, lost in a poker game by his British boss George van Bassingwell, Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) to rough American rancher Egbert Floud (Charles Ruggles) and his upwardly mobile wife Effie (Mary Boland).

There’s a hilarious script (by Walter DeLeon, Harlan Thompson and Humphrey Pearson) and sprightly direction by the nimble comedy expert McCarey, and all the performances are superb — not forgetting spinster ZaSu Pitts as Prunella Judson, Leila Hyams as Nell Kenner and Maude Eburne as old broad ‘Ma’ Pettingill. It was nominated for one Oscar as Best Picture.

Also in the cast are James Burke, Lucien Littlefield, Leota Lorraine, Del Henderson, Brenda Fowler, Sarah Edwards, Clarence Wilson, Frank Rice, Lee Kohlmar, Harry Bernard and Rolfe Sedan.

Ruggles of Red Gap is directed by Leo McCarey, runs 92 minutes , is made and released by Paramount, is written by Walter DeLeon, Harlan Thompson, Humphrey Pearson, is shot in black and white by Alfred Gilks, is produced by Arthur Hornblow Jnr, is scored by Ralph Rainger and is designed by Hans Dreier and Robert Odell.

There were two silent film versions of Harry Leon Wilson’s 1915 story, notably James Cruze’s 1923 Ruggles of Red Gap with Edward Everett Horton, and it was remade with Bob Hope as 1950’s Fancy Pants.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8243

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